Topio stin omihli (1988) Reviews

• A Greek pilgrimage

  jandesimpson2002-02-20

  SPOILER insofar that an attempt is made to interpret the end of the film. If John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress" is the greatest work of road literature, Theo Angelopoulos's "Landscape in the Mist" deserves similar status among road movies. I use this association deliberately as far too often this film is merely described as the search of an adolescent girl and her small brother for their father whom they have been led to believe has left their native Greece and is living in Germany.If this was all the film was about it would make little sense, for although set within the parameters of reality (wintry landscapes often brutalised by industry), strange things continually happen; a horse dies in a freezing square at night just as a wedding party is breaking up, people rush from a building as the first snowfall is announced and stand transfixed like statues gazing upwards, an elderly man enters an otherwise empty cafe and plays a melancholy tune on a violin for the small boy who has gone there in search of food, a helicopter slowly draws a giant sculptured hand from the sea until it is poised high above a harbour. And then there is the tiny fragment of photographic negative found in a city street that the boy then carries with him and which seems to show a solitary tree in a misty landscape which in turn becomes the background for the final shot of the film. It is impossible not to interpret the work as anything other than an allegory, like Bunyan's, as a quest for spiritual enlightenment. Only then can we understand that the border between Greece and the North is metaphysical rather than national. As the children cross from one country to another in a landscape completely shrouded in mist shots of border guards break out. Only through the transition between life and death can they reach the place they have been seeking. Since the loss of Satyajit Ray the mantle of the world's greatest director has, in my opinion, passed to Angelopoulos. "Landscape in the Mist" is the most sublime work he has yet given us.

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• Deliberate emotional complexity

  peedur2001-05-17

  A hard film to watch but an unforgettable experience. I was deeply moved by the damage done to these children in the raw, emptiness of the world of this film. Running away through Greece to seek out their theoretical father in an imagined Germany, they experience confusion, violation and epic indifference to their real and imagined needs. Momentary relief and hope is found in the form of a young man traveling with a theater company, but it is fleeting. The sheer simplicity of their need remain together and to go to Germany is, by the end, all that they have. Angelopoulos, like other artists/poets/philosophers in film, has a very specific vision of the world which he is relating. There are moments in Landscape In The Mist where our trained needs for (Hollywood) film conventions, story structure and even simple answers cries out. Yet this is far from his intent; as with poetry, the film strives to state itself with images and ideas which leave the viewer not simply awed by beauty but also perplexed and emotionally disorganized as to how or what to to feel. To judge Angelopoulos on the same standards as a showbiz product is to miss the point. He believes film is art and not necessarily entertainment. One may dislike that vision but one will invariably be enriched by the journey if one can spend the time watching it with an open mind. Angelopoulos finds funding for his films and makes them for those who care to extend themselves into someone else's vision, not to reward investors by meeting a market need. He is a powerful artist. There are reasons why his films are not well known in the US, but those reasons are also what makes them fascinating, brilliant and rare experiences.

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• aka Landscape in the Mist

  ABS-132004-10-25

  I saw this movie when it was playing in Berkeley in 1990. This is one of the most beautiful and haunting films I have ever seen. Filled with scenes of mythic beauty and magical realism. It is, on the surface, about two siblings search for their father, but it is also about the search for something both less obvious and more universal. It haunted my dreams for months and some of the images in this film have stayed with me to this day. If you are of a philosophical bent and are open to the experience, I believe you will enjoy this film very much.

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• Another flawed masterwork from Angelopoulos

  runamokprods2010-12-18

  I seem to have the same reaction to each of Angelopoulos' films; flawed genius. But in each film, the flaws and what feels masterful is different. Mild spoilers ahead... In this story of a 12 year old girl and her younger brother on a fruitless journey for their non- existent father in Germany what works is the ultimate emotional impact of the piece (it left me in tears), and (as always) the sheer poetic power of some of Angelopoulos' images. On the other hand, a key supporting character (the youthful actor Oresteis) is thinly written and exists basically as an overly-convenient plot point. Some of the dialogue and ideas feel heavy handed, and some images are lifted from other director's films. And the references to his own earlier film 'The Traveling Players' are an interesting, brave style choice, but also a bit distracting and intellectual. The young girl's acting is mostly terrific, but the young boy feels fake at times, which doesn't help. There are scenes I'll never forget. Maybe the most disturbing (yet completely hidden) rape scene I've ever seen. But other scenes feel awkward or forced. This is the kind of film that may grow on revisiting, and I certainly plan to see it again.

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• like a dream you can't shake

  mjneu592010-11-30

  A quest for an unknown father becomes an odyssey into adulthood for two illegitimate Greek children, traveling alone the length of their country in a hopeless attempt to trace the whereabouts of a man they know only from the bedside fairy tales told by their mother. The journey is often grim and brutal, but is also filled by occasional magic, transforming their search into a sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter reflection of childhood mysteries and adolescent pain. The reticent screenplay and slow, deliberate rhythms will likely be tedious to anyone with a TV-damaged attention span, but the same understated detachment can sometimes have a devastating impact, for example during a rape scene made all the more chilling for taking place just out of view, and in total silence. Discriminating viewers able to avoid nodding off into their popcorn will find it a film of rare beauty, with an emotional resonance to match the often haunting imagery.

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